Induction of active forms of oxygen by biotic elicitors in tomato cell cultures

The elicitor-induced generation of two oxygen species in tomato cell culture as well as their involvement into hypersensitive reaction was investigated. Generation of superoxide O2.- was measured by a lucigenin-related chemiluminescence. Accumulation of hydrogen peroxide H2O2 was measured by a fluorescent probe pyranin. Xylanase and chitosan were used as biotic elicitors with different mode of action. It was found that both O2.- and H2O2 had been accumulated in elicitor-treated tomato cells. The results obtained show that reactive oxidants are important signal transduction elements for activation of hypersensitive response in tomato cells.